“Painting is a matter of bravery. For the artist and the viewer,” explains artist Henrietta Mantooth (Henriettamantooth.com).

The 97-year-old describes her work as a “testimony” as it often focuses on those “who are usually anonymous – refugees, rebels, inmates, farmers, men and women who care for and defend their lands, their homes, their children, their animals and their ideas.” Over the course of a prolific career, she has exhibited her works at prestigious institutions ranging from the Sao Paulo Biennale and the Museum of Modern Art in Brazil to the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York.

Mantooth will be exhibiting at the launch party for the new Gold Standard Arts Festival on February 16 at the Goddard Riverside Bernie Wohl Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Celebrities such as Brenda Vaccaro, Richard Kind, Mario Cantone and Judy Gold are scheduled with entertainment and city leaders.

The Gold Standard Arts Festival is the only multidisciplinary arts festival in the United States celebrating the powerful work of older artists. It will kick off the week of April 25 and will include performances and fine art culminating with a weekend film festival. It is conceived and directed by film and television veterans Caytha Jentis and Eileen Katz and co-hosted by Goddard Riverside, the community organization.

“We see this festival as a great way to nurture, highlight and celebrate a demographic that has been largely ignored in the arts,” says Katz. “We live in a great time of inclusion and diversity, and we want to add this demographic to the dialogue.”

Party art will be for sale, part of which will fund the festival. There will also be a live auction which includes tickets to The Tonight Show Starring Stephen Colbert. Tickets are on sale at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gold-standard-arts-festival-kick-off-party-tickets-224948496007